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Balance
Monday, August 1st, 2005 by joelThere is this general concept in eastern countries that the universe exists as a delicate balance between light and dark. It is necessary (they say) to maintain this balance. If the universe shifts out of balance, then things go wacky, spirits roam wrestles, dragons are displeased, ancestors get ticked… you know, that stuff.
So, whereas a ‘Western’ story would involve evil arising, beating down on folks for a while, and then good triumphing over the evil; an ‘Eastern’ tale involves a misbalanced where one side or the other becomes too powerful, and then, usually through some heroics, balance is restored.
This concept, that we must achieve a state of harmonic balance and then just sort of exist at this state, seems to be what has driven eastern culture. Only now are they beginning to get into the swing of western thought where it’s all-or-nothing, win-at-all-costs sort of stuff. Its clear that even THEY did not entirely embrace this idea of drifting along at a state of unchanging harmony, or their fiction would not involve heroics and constant shifts in the balance.
It is a tempting line of reasoning for a couch potato lifestyle, though. Balance is achieved by sitting in front of the TV pushing buttons on my game controller. Unbalance happens when a bigger TV or a better game or gaming system comes out. My harmony is challenged by such things as ‘rent’ and a ‘job.’
Yeah. This doesn’t work for Western culture at all.
